Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 221: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the delays and waiting time in the scanning unit of the various sections of her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32816/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I understand that the Deputy is referring to delays and waiting times in the scanning unit for carer's allowance scheme.

As part of my department's Document, Record and Information Management (DRIM) programme and in tandem with Service Delivery Modernisation (SDM) projects underway for carer's allowance scheme, scanning of medical documents in Social Welfare Services (SWS) Longford commenced in November 2010. At the beginning of September 2011, scanning was extended to include carer's allowance application forms and associated documentation.

The DRIM programme is a key part of my department's ongoing change and modernisation programme. The rationale for the programme is to reduce the volume of paper documents used and stored in scheme areas by scanning the documents, making the scanned images available online to staff and, where appropriate, extracting data from scanned images for integration to ICT systems to facilitate automation of business processes.

As I have mentioned, carer's allowance section is currently undergoing major modernisation projects under SDM and DRIM. While these projects will yield considerable benefits and enhance customer service, there is a short-term cost. The deployment of scheme staff to project development and implementation and the development and delivery of appropriate staff training programmes was and is vital to the success of these projects. As a consequence, backlogs of new claims awaiting decisions and medical assessments have increased.

Carer's allowance section has commenced full operation of the new SDM system for new claims since the beginning of September 2011. Since then, resources have been prioritised as far as possible to the reduction of backlogs and progress has been made in the past number of weeks in this regard.